Traveling Trunk: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”-Confucius Erica Van Keuren
What is a traveling trunk? A teaching method and tool brining parts of a history museum into the classroom. Atlanta History Center’s Outreach Education Program – “Content, context, comprehension” – Experiential education – Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
How does it work? Atlanta History Center Concept: pick a standard to be taught via the trunk Context: how the standard will be taught Comprehension: measurement of student’s learning and connection with prior knowledge Experiential Education & Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Experiential education: learning and doing with hands. Direct experience and focused reflection. Gardner’s MI: linguistic, logical/mathematical, musical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal
Is this significant? Student’s think history is boring and has no relation to his/her daily life Student engagement in Georgia History – Can a travel trunk successfully teach Georgia eighth-graders the history content in SS8H7? – SS8H7 SS8H7
Research Methods Survey Monkey Atlanta History Center
Overall, did you like the trunk?
Teachers liked…
How well were students engaged?
Should the trunk teach one strand of a standard?
Other areas the trunk could address
Do teachers want to use it?
Student engagement
Possible trunk composition
Proposed Solution Create an educational travel trunk that includes primary artifacts: – Aspects from Leo Frank and Race Riots – Maps of Atlanta from 1870 to 1919 – Poems and other writings
Special thanks to: Dr. Stephanie McClure Dr. Doug Oetter Ms. Cara Meade Mrs. Beth Woodward Atlanta History Center, teachers Special Education Cohort ‘07-’09